Saturday, March 11, 2006

On January 20, 1579 the Union of Utrecht was signed and the northern half of the Habsburg domains in northwestern Europe, known as De Zeventien Provinciën, seceded and declared itself independent. The Dutch Republic was born. The people of The Netherlands, under the yoke of foreign rule since the Romans, finally ruled themselves.

On March 7, 2006, their independence, for which they once tenaciously and successfully fought both at sea and on land against a succession of invaders... the Spaniards with their redoubtabe general Farnese, the British, with whom they fought four wars, and the French, against whom they even had to flood their own land to hold them back a the last moment... on that day... that independence came to an end.

On Tuesday, March 7 2006, municipal elections were held in The Netherlands, which were overwhelmingly won by the Left. The architects of this catastrophe are, bottom row from left to right (the gentlemen on the row above are their ieological confrères), Wouter Bos from the leftist PvdA (Partij van de Arbeid - Labour if you like), Jan Marijnissen and his extreme leftist SP (Socialistische Partij), and Femke Halsema and her even more extreme extreme leftist Groenlinks (Green Left) party..

It was an earthquake, leading to a leftist majority in almost half of the town councils in Hollands 50 biggest cities, among them Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Groningen, Nijmegen, Arnhem, Alkmaar, Hengelo, Leeuwarden, Leiden, Maastricht and Enschede. The center-right Christian-Democratic Party (CDA) of Dutch PM Jan-Peter Balkenende and the pro free market Liberal Party (VVD) lost heavily, with 500 town hall seats going to the PvdA (a 50% increase) and 176 to the SP (a 100% increase, from 157 to 333). So shocking was the calamity that the VVD's parliamentary fraction leader, Jozias Van Aartsen, felt obliged to resign. The prospects for the Dutch Right for the 2007 parliamentary elections are thus dramatic, with the most likely scenario that of a radical leftist coalition similar to that in Norway.

How did this disaster came about? Perhaps the most telling explanation is offered by Dutch daily De Volkskrant, literally meaning The People's Journal, which, you guessed it, happens to be a leftist newspaper:

Imagine my surprise. Not only have leftist parties over the past decades pampered the immigrants with lavish welfare benefits and positive discrimination, without asking something in return, they have also granted immigrants who do not even have the Dutch nationality the right to vote in municipal elections... just like in Norway and, alas, in my own country. In my opinion, this has not so much to do with a genuine desire to make them feel comfy and involved in our society, as with cool reckoning where one can grab the most votes in the (nearby) future. Given that in a decade Moroccan "youth" will outnumber the descendants of William of Orange and Johan De Witt in the key cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Leiden, the PvdA/SP/Groenlinks stance is a rational one, all said and done.

And the love goes both ways. Immigrants vote overwhelmingly for the Left. Indeed, 84% and 78% of the Turkish and Moroccan vote respectively went to the PvdA. By contrast, polls show that only 1% of the immigrant vote went to the center-right VVD. As J. Tillie, researcher of abovementioned institute, stated in another daily, De Telegraaf:

It is truly ironic that exactly those parties which advocate fancy progressive issues such as gay marriage and gay adoption, single parentship, loose relations, demoliton of both the Family and our Christian Heritage, get the bulk of the Muslim vote, since the Muslim community is known to espouse ultraconservative views in these areas. The Turks e.g., said to cherish family values, gave only 3% of their votes to the CDA, the Dutch party par excellence when it comes to defending the concept of a healthy family with mom, dad and a couple of well-educated and happy kids.

It is truly ironic that in a country where as a 7-year old I saw porn magazines for sale next to Barbie dolls, as a 24-year old was offered drugs smack in the middle of Amsterdam with cops walking along, and as a 35-year old had the privilege of showing my mother-in-law Antillian immigrants administering themselves drug injections in broad daylight, the native population itself has also voted overwhelmingly for exactly those parties which have sacrificed Dutch identity and Dutch values on an altar of perverse multiculturalism, drenched with the blood of illegally slaughtered sheep. With an air of utter naivity the new priests of the All-Cultures-Are-Equal-Except-Ours-Which-Is-Despicable religion offer newcomers from Yemen glossy brochures with photos of naturists on Dutch beaches and passionately kissing same sex couples. In so doing they seem to think that merely printing the joys of modern multiculti society will induce Abdullah from Jalalabad, fresh in from an area where a woman is worth half a man (if she’s lucky), will nod approvingly and take it all for granted if only he gets his welfare check. Reminds me a bit of a chicken offering a fox a truce whereby the chicken promises never to offer resistance if only the fox promises he’ll become a vegetarian.

However, the sign is on the wall. Whether or not most Dutch as well as the nonassimilating immigrants in their midst voted equally, starry eyes upward to the Welfare Walhalla, brains switched off, the Tuesday elections showed the dramatic and irreversible impact of immigrant votes on Dutch politics. The host is at the mercy of the guest, the Dutch are at the mercy of non-Dutch. The Netherlands are no longer independent.

MFBB.

UPDATE: HEAR IT FROM A DUTCHMAN

This is from Mark Steyn's mailbox:

You might want to take a closer look to what just happened in Holland and particularly in Rotterdam. Three days ago (the 7th of March) we had municipal elections and the socialist left achieved an absolute majority in about 10 Dutch cities. Such majorities were limited up to now to only one city: Nijmegen (nicknamed Havanna aan de Waal). Most other towns, where there is no absolute majority, are now; dominated by the left. The prospect of an absolute majority of leftist parties on a national level has also become a possibility. At least in the polls such a majority aready exists. Our current government is tough - not by far tough enough - on illegal immigration and integration. I don't really support them but at least Ayaan Hirsi Ali is member of a government party, they are participating in Afghanistan and our government has been attempting some much needed reform in the Dutch welfare state trying to prevent economic disaster. For example, about a million folks are deemed physically or mentally unable to work. Many of them Moroccan & Turkish immigrants from the 60s and 70s but also many Dutch folks who convinced themselves they are sick. Many healthy and capable people retire at 58. Especially with highly skilled people wh o studied until well into their thirties this is a huge waste of human resources. Anyway, Holland is a very leftist country - foolishly so - which explains the leftist victory but it cannot be explained without the Muslim vote. National elections are scheduled for May 2007. The most interesting events occurred in Rotterdam.

Rotterdam, as you may or may not know is the hometown of Pim Fortuyn. On the 6th of March 2002 his new Leefbaar Rotterdam party won 17 seats in the 45 seat city council. Rotterdam is a city where almost 50% of the population is Muslim and after years of Socialist neglect - rising crime, failing intergration - Fortuyn had huge appeal amongst the local Dutch population -but not exclusively so. After his murder his party continued to function -as opposed to the national version; Lijst Pim Fortuyn' which more or less fell apart in the 6 months it was in goverment. Under leadership of Leefbaar Rotterdam many experiments were attempted with spectacular successes. Areas which were known as "no-go areas" became safe again. People who were unemployed but healthy were put back to work. Many mayors and government officials took a keen interest in what was achieved in Rotterdam. Nevertheless, the Dutch labor party won the elections this time because about 50% of the population in Rotterdam is Muslim. Leefbaar Rotterdam fell back to 14 seats, Labour got 18. It's very human that people prefer a party which tells them they have rights instead of obligations. It's very normal people prefer a party that tells them they need help instead of taking responsibility. This repeated itself in Amsterdam and The Hague where the socialists ach ieved majorities or enlarged them. This is also happening on the national scene. It appears to me that it has become virtually impossible for the right to win elections in this country.

Notice this: A European country has reached a stage where rightish parties (though there is no real rightwing in Holland yet, everybody is various degrees of left) cannot win municipal elections in cities where their toughness on crime and integration is most needed. Imagine a New York where Guiliani would not be able to be elected mayor because people think his zero tolerance policy isn't nice. I have high hopes of Marco Pastors, one of the most prominent members of the Leefbaar Rotterdam movement w ho has now decided to go into national politics. So watch him.

Ever since Fortuyn appeared and was murdered Dutch politicians have been asking themselves what his magic was. Was it his haircut (he was bald), his tie, his homosexuality his remarks about Islam? It's obvious to me, but not to them: Fortuyn dared to have opinions . He said the Muslims were a 5th column. He said having 1 million people on welfare even if they are completely healthy is wrong. He said that if the first rule of the Dutch constitution which tells us that we should not discriminate also implies that he cannot speak out about Islam, then this rule should be abolished. Thom De Graaf, then leader of D'66 read from the diary of Anne Frank as if to suggest Fortuyn wanted to murder her all over again. Fortuyn wanted to send soldiers to Israel to help kill Hamas terrorists, but caring about living Jews just ain't the fashion on in this place. So they accused him of being a new Hitler, a Mussolini, a neo-fascist, mentally unstable, a danger to society and this went on and on until an animal-rights activist took the hint and killed him. It will be very interesting to see how they respond to Marco Pastors and if he manages to get enough votes or stay alive.

Unfortunately I cannot be considered to be a sane Dutchman since I am a Jew, served in the Israeli army and like George Bush (though lately not as much).

Monday, March 06, 2006

Only not where you would expect them. We interrupt our regular broadcasts on Islamonazism because, frankly, itallmakesmewanttopuke, and we move to higher spheres....

...like the chaps above. They stand on top of the Atomium, arguably Belgium’s most iconic landmark, being at the same time a gigantic sculpture and an architectural enigma. It was commissioned in 1958 (the "Atomic Age"), just in time for the Brussels World Exhibition, and the building is actually representing nine iron atoms arranged in a so-called BCC-crystal, magnified 165 billion times. BCC stands for Body Centered Cubic and is the scientific way to describe the crystalline arrangement of nine atoms whereby there’s one atom at each corner of an imaginary cube and one atom right in the center of that cube. Compare for yourself the matvis graphic to the right and the Atomium photo and you’ll see that for once I’m not talking nonsense. Btw, Matvis is a crystal structure visualizing software and it’s real great.

The Atomium dominates the Heizelplateau, a plain just north of Brussels on which exhibitions of all kinds are held in several great expo halls all year round. The nine balls are the brainchild of André Waterkeyn, a Belgian engineer born as a WWI refugee in 1917 in England. In 1954 he was a young director at the Belgian Federation of the Metallurgical Industry, Fabrimetal, recently renamed Agoria, and he won the bid issued by the World Exhibition Organizing Committee to design a fitting symbol for Belgian craftsmanship. Waterkeyn being a "metal" man and Fabrimetal being one of the exhibition's patrons, it is not surprising that the symbol turned out to be an iron crystal. Had a chap from the Belgian Food Federation won the contest, we Beljuns might have been saddled up perpetually with a gigantic pak frieten as a fitting symbol for Belgian culinary prowess. Or a gigantic crate of Duvel. Whatever.

Anyway, Waterkeyn set to work with frenzied vigour and actual construction started in March 1956. The Atomium's structure is made entirely of steel and at the time it was clad with aluminium, more exactly the special alloy Peraluman 15, which was chosen for its low weight and its better resistance to corrosion. For all the effort, durable materials and sound engineering, the Atomium originally was not intended to outlast the 1958 Exhibition for more than six months - quite similar to the Eiffel Tower which should also have been demolished shortly after the 1889 Paris World Exhibition.

Some stats. The Atomium is 102 m high (334.6. ft.) and its spheres have a diameter of 18m (59.0 ft). The distance from one sphere to another, measured along on the cube's ribs, is 29m (95.1 ft). The connecting shafts are 23m long with a diameter of 3.3m and house escalators, which can take 3,000 persons per hour. The elevator speed 16.4 ft/sec. It takes visitors up to the top sphere in 23 seconds and has a capacity of 22 persons. A floor has an area of 240m2 (2,583 sq.ft) and the height between floors is approximately 4.5m (14.8 ft). The restaurant in the top sphere can accommodate 140 persons and the viewpoint situated on the floor just below can contain 250 persons.

During the nineties it gradually became clear that some major maintenance works would soon become necessary. Belgium being a crazy smorgasbord of competing authorities it was not immediately clear who would cough up the money for such a project. The government of Brussels Capital Region? The City of Brussels? The federal government? What would be the contribution of the private sector? Serious candidates presented themselves, like Belgacom and Daimler. A less serious one was Richard Branson's Virgin, on the condition the Atomium be painted in the colours of Virgin Airlines. Finally, in 2001 the federal government decided to finance the bulk of a 27.5 million euros renovation, and in March 2004 work was started on a two-year complete overhaul. Biggest novelty hereby was to replace the ageing aluminium lining with stainless steel. Another break with the past was fragmentation of the original 1,000 panels with 50,000 much smaller ones in two thousand different shapes. The Belgian building consortium Besix-Delens would be responsible for the overhaul, whereby they chose to train alpinists as construction workers rather than the other way round! The Antwerp-based architects bureau Conix Architecten signed for the interior refurbishment, and the German Light Designer Ingo Maurer for lighting inside as well as outside, whereby he used LED systems to simulate the fifties light effects.

On Saturday 18 February 2006 the Atomium was officially reopened. To Belgians, the Atomium is what the Eiffel Tower is to French, and a visit to Brussels without at least passing by the monumental "iron crystal" is like going to Paris without visiting Eiffels famous creation. Too bad the man who lies at the base of it all is no longer among us. André Waterkeyn passed away on October 4, 2005, at the ripe old age of 88. He did see the start of the renovation - was even present at the site now and then - but not its completion. In his honour, the uppermost sphere is called after him. After almost five decades his creation, which was originally meant to be demolished in 1959, shines again. Perhaps the most fitting tribute to his genius is from 77- year old Frans Cools, legendary foreman on many great building projects in Belgium and then supervisor of the Atomium construction:

"Eighteen months we worked on it, in a hellish pace, and I can tell you: it is built to last a thousand years."